Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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Yesterday I finished reading Coming Home to the Pleistocene, which I found recommended here at PaleoHacks. I am looking for more books, websites, articles, or ideas, about culture, society, psychology, philosophy, etc. that are informed by evolutionary or paleo thinking. Basically, anything not related to diet or exercise that is related to how our ancestral environment shapes how we relate to the modern world.

I have already read The Moral Animal and Ishmael. Matt Ridley (Red Queen, Origin of Virtue, etc.) is on my list. What else is worth reading or knowing about?

edited Feb 9 2011 at 2:20

texasleah
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asked Feb 4 2011 at 10:59

stoic
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Pieter D · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-04 15:00:09Z UTC

Ooooooeeh, with your paleo goggles on, there is so much interesting food for thought. Some ideas in random order:

Frank Forencic from Exuberant Animal: read his books, browse his site. More then exercise alone!

Children and Nature Network and Richard Louv's Last Child In The Woods: Importance of contact with nature, mainly for children. But equally important for adults, even more so for parents.

Also very interesting: Hunter Gatherer Childhoods (rather academic, but readable)

Read about evolutionary psychology. Steven Pinker is really good to start with (The Blank Slate and How The Mind Works).

Read about evolution and biology: Darwin, Dawkins, Gould, EO Wilson, Dennett, ...

Read hunter gatherer anthropology: Marshall Thomas, Turnbull, Marlowe, Nelson, Shostack, ...

Evolutionary medicine: Why We Get Sick. Google R. Nesse and his personal homepage has a lot of interesting free papers

Female health and evolutionary medicine: Travathan: Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives

I'm in a hurry, so I'm missing a lot, but you can start with these...

texasleah · Answer 2 · 2011-02-04 15:47:49Z UTC

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i love Evolvify.com

Andrew really thinks outside of the box, and any blog that requires me to actually use the dictionary is always a favorite.

answered Feb 4 2011 at 15:47

texasleah
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Andrew has helped me build a very large reading list. – MF Feb 5 2011 at 2:26

primaldog · Answer 3 · 2011-02-05 14:46:21Z UTC

Nova's Becoming Human and BBC's Walking with Cavemen are both streaming on Netflix and are great to watch on evolution of man. Both talk about why we eat meat. Not necessarily paleo diet related movies, but gives some perspective on evolution in general to put the diet into some context.

oliverh · Answer 4 · 2011-02-04 14:49:58Z UTC

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Books to read:

Try "Naked Ape" and "Human Zoo" by Desmond Morris, actually, he did documentaries that can be found on youtube.

Jared Diamond's "Guns Germs and Steel" although it's not so well written.

Try this film list. I would add to that list the film "Ten Canoes"

edited Feb 4 2011 at 14:49

answered Feb 4 2011 at 14:41

oliverh
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Second the Desmond Morris books! I knew I forgot some... – Pieter D Feb 4 2011 at 14:55

Nate · Answer 5 · 2011-02-05 03:58:30Z UTC

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David Sloan Wilson has a book, Evolution for Everyone, that is great for thinking in terms of evolution

answered Feb 5 2011 at 3:58

Nate
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Harley · Answer 6 · 2011-02-05 14:38:41Z UTC

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I love the book "lights out". A quick amazon search will get you to it. The author gets a little lose towards the end, but it has some great paleo ideals in it!

answered Feb 5 2011 at 14:38

Harley
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gone2croatan · Answer 7 · 2011-03-24 18:51:41Z UTC

It's a little (read: a lot) hippie-dippie and weird, but Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising has been probably the most influential book on my psychospiritual development. It uses some (slightly pseudoscientific) evolutionary logic, Leary's 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness (yes, THAT Leary). Basically the idea is hacking your brain to become aware of your own perceptions and the way they influence how you see truth.

Definitely heavily influenced by psychedelics and goofy crap, but I love it.

Where can I find paleo ideas beyond diet and exercise?

7 Answers